1 Platoon Football Practice Schedule

This last year we did O days and D days. We only had 6 coaches and about 50 consistent players for the whole program (Varsity and JV) and we only coached one side of the ball, so there were multiple reasons why we split it up.

Monday was our heavy Indy/Install day. Started with a little bit longer meeting before practice than normal, followed by about 45 minutes of Indy for O and 45 minutes for D. We finished with walking through the looks we expected to see that week and any wrinkles we felt the need to go over.

Tuesday was Varsity O/JV D. Only about 20 minutes of Indy, then Punt and KOR, then 20 minutes of offense emphasis 7 on 7, and 40 minutes of Team (4 plays Varsity O vs. Scout D, 2 Plays JV D vs. Scout O). We had a few guys who only played one way, so the offense-only JV guys would do everything with the Varsity offense, and the defense-only Varsity guys would do everything with the JV defense.

Wednesday, everything flipped. Varsity D/JV O. 20 minutes of Indy, then PR and KO, 20 minutes of defense emphasis 7 on 7, and 40 minutes of Team (4-2 Varsity D, JV O).

Thursday was JV Gameday and Varsity Walkthrough day.

It wasn't perfect, but it worked for us and our needs. It probably wouldn't work as well if Varsity and JV didn't practice together.

We had an offensive day and a defensive day. Each day also included two STs each day, plus a 20 minute period for the other side of the ball. As a DCI liked doing it this way because it meant that all of my "defensive time" was actually spent on defense. In my experience, if the HC runs the offense, as he often does in HS, those 50-50 days often end up being 75-25.

I’ve done both.

My preference now is to do an “emphasis day” on Tues and Wed but work a little bit of the other side of the ball, too. Like in a 2 hour practice, on offensive emphasis day you might do 80 minutes of offense, 10-20 minutes to work on a special team, and then 20-30 minutes of defense (tackling circuit, 10 of a team D drill, etc.)

A lot of this depends on what your staff looks like. Do your coaches go both ways or are you a split staff? Generally small roster=small staff, so you’ll need all hands on deck to coach each side of the ball, but if you split staffs one side can coach the JV or freshman kids on their side of the ball while the other coaches varsity.

That works very well for developing the young kids, but i’d rather have those guys coaching scout teams during group and team periods and coaching those kids up on technique there.

The issue you run into with trying to do a 50/50 split both days is that you may lose time in transition and whoever goes second will get less focus from the players. Frankly, though, if you schedule practice properly to address those issues in advance that all works out the same.

Another thing to think about is how much hitting you’ll be doing. IMO, each side of the ball needs a live contact day each week. That means an O emphasis day or D emphasis day may have to skip hitting if you want to do them back to back.

To finally answer the question, I like something like this:

Monday—film study, special teams emphasis day (meaning work KO/KOR, and coverage/return indies). then the rest is a a 50/50 non-contact day in shells. Do Indy and some group and team stuff just to put in the gameplan.

Tuesday—Offensive emphasis day. Again, work a ST (like Punt or FG) and then a little D to rep fundamentals and address areas of concern for the week. Moderate contact.

Wednesday—Defensive emphasis day, same as Tuesday but reversed.

Thursday—Walkthrough. Some coaches like to make this a regular practice day or focus on STs here instead of Monday and that’s fine, too.

Friday—Pregame meetings and walkthrough.

Also, every kid needs to learn a position on each side of the ball. Even if you “know” he’ll never play there, on a 1 platoon team you may wind up needing him in a pinch. This also just lets those guys go with their position group for Indy on the other side of the ball. They can work on scout team some to give the other side a better look.

If you have a QB. P, or K you know you will never, ever play anywhere else under any circumstances (again, don’t be so sure…), if a coach is free to work with them they can just get extra Indy time.

Also, I’ll echo what fantom said about 50/50 days turning into 75/25 days. That always happens some, no matter how disciplined the HC is.

We do theme days:
Monday film and install. JV game is scheduled.
Tuesday Defense
Wednesday Offense
Thursday Pre-Game

For us if you only play one side of the ball that means you are a scout team player the other day. So a kid that only plays DT for us will be Scout DT on offense day. We have very few that fit this category, but when we do its great because it becomes a #1 kid vs a #1 kid in scout team.

We do offense and defense every day in season. Vs a team that is fairly balanced we may go Run O/D heavy one day and pass heavy O/D the other. It’s worked for us.

What is install? We install in pre-season.

For us install is going over the game plan for that week. Reviewing the stuff from our playbook we plan to focus on that week. Possibly adding in a new offensive tag or defensive stunt/blitz if we feel that it would be an absolute game changer. Install is probably the wrong word to use but its just what we have called it forever. Maybe Mental Monday would be better for us but that might also give a bad impression of what we are doing.

What are the time constraints?

Is it possible to divide practice into different parts of the day?